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The Legislative Duma of Tomsk Oblast
Brief outline of the speech of Boris Maltsev,
Speaker of the Tomsk Oblast State Duma at its XXXII Session
 The world community is still hoping to find a panacea against the world economic crisis consequences. Pittsburgh (US) hosted the second G20 Crisis Management Summit. Its results exceeded all expectations. The decision to control macroeconomic parameters in the largest world economies was called revolutionary by most of the leaders. According to the results of the Summit, the crisis can be an impetus for a more just world order. "The unipolar world is collapsing, which is known. It's good that the US came to this understanding as well. It is much better than a unipolar world, where no one is listening to each other and there is an elite group to which all the others keep comparing themselves. Let's really try to listen to and learn from each other," said the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It would be great that this principle is applied in the Russian home politics to further strengthen and develop the real federalism.
By this address the President appealed to us to take part in discussions devoted to the Russian development strategy. The President’s web-article "Russia, ahead!" came to be the most significant political event of the previous month. The President is writing openly and frankly about the troubles of Russia. Nevertheless, the President is confident that in the XXI century we can fight these ills. The article appeals to each of us. Are we ready to take an active part in this work, be a part of the President's team? We have enough time to conceive the past and we are waiting for certain proposals and actions from the deputies.
On October 11, over 75 regions in Russia held almost 7,000 elections at different levels. And "The United Russia" swept to a landslide. We can see that the party has lots of proponents. Moreover, the former elections example has shown that all the election campaign stages must be strictly controlled for compliance with the election legislation.
Today, when the President has set a mission for us to modernize the Russian economy, to put it on the rails of innovative development as the highest priority for Russia in the XXI century, Tomsk Oblast has all chances to become a leader in this field. Two important events in Tomsk became breakthroughs in achieving this objective. First, we have hosted the Innovation Forum with International Participation for the 12th time. Second, Tomsk Polytechnic University joined the list of 12 winners awarded with the category "National Research University", the only one among the Tomsk universities.
Beside these Tomsk has witnessed some other significant events: 40-year anniversary of the Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, "parade of the world microsurgery luminaries", the Congress of Oncologists with International Participation, the Congress of Russian Pediatricians, and the Congress of Surgeons.
The Duma is currently involved in the most challenging activity - preparation and approval of the major financial document of the Oblast - Budget Act for 2010 and planning -period of 2011 and 2012. The full document package submitted to us by the Oblast Administration consists of 3 volumes, 664 pages. As estimated, 107 kg of documents were submitted to the Duma. Major efforts have been undertaken, now the matter depends on the deputies.
Although the expiring year is leaving behind some unresolved problems, the unbiased assessment shows that we have performed well. Let me remind you that we have been in the cliffhanger since June 2008: in November-December we were almost in panic, the 1st quarter of 2009 gave us 90.4 % in backbone industries. The anxiety is surging! However, we close the year with signs of recovery: we roughly estimate the industrial output to be 96.4%, for Russia - 87.5 %. Some backbone industries have even shown growth (food, petroleum industry, nuclear & chemical production, electrical equipment production and agriculture).
Great organizational efforts were undertaken in that respect by the Governor Viktor Kress, the Oblast Administration and Duma, heads of municipal entities, enterprises and organizations, and their employees.
Due to the timely undertaken measures, particularly the budget correction, we managed not only to preserve all social sectors - education, health care, culture - but make a step forward in some of them (repair of schools and health care facilities). Equally important is that the on-budget spending for social support - in the current year it is 4.6bn rubles - are timely financed without delays. The best and most unbiased assessment of the authorities work is population growth. Over 9 months 2009, 9,130 people were born and 8,884 died. For the first time in 10 years we have witnessed natural population growth. Owing to migration, the Oblast population grew by 2,150 people. Maybe there seems to be nothing to be proud of, but there’s nothing to be ashamed of as well. Let me remind you it was the peak of the global crisis.
Certainly, 2009 left behind some problems: 3 % unemployment, over 9 months unpaid wages have totaled 46m rubles, uncontrolled growth of prices in the stores and utility tariffs... Hundreds of kilometers of Tomsk roads have not been repaired, and they are among the worst in Russia. We have failed to solve the problems in building industry and construction, particularly in housing construction. Extremely little budget money was allocated for development. And our future progress and completion of many important social and economic tasks depend on it.
Capital investment in fixed assets turned out to be of a great challenge. In 2008, 78.6bn rubles was spent. This year this index has made up 76% against the preceding year. In 2008 foreign investments totaled USD 679m, this year – USD 373.6m.
We start the work on 2010 budget against this challenging background, just the background, and not the assessment and analysis of 2009 results (this will be touched later). And we are losing much: mineral extraction tax – almost 1bn rubles – will be transferred to the federal budget in 2010. And the crisis phenomena in the industry and economy still remain.
The first challenges. We need to dig for resources, use all possibilities to provide social security for public sector workers. Nevertheless, the problem of reducing expenses of public sector organizations remains urgent. Next year we can expect minor growth of the population cash income and average pension increase. State social guarantees, targeted measures for population social support are proposed to be retained at 2009 level.
In 2008 the Oblast budget allocated 5.7bn rubles for the economy development, 4.6bn rubles were planned for 2009 although we can provide only 2.5bn rubles. In 2010 those funds will have to be significantly reduced.
Generally speaking, along with the budgetary funds, we need private, foreign and state financial resources to live and progress.
The creditworthiness of our Oblast cannot be questioned. However, due to reduction of the Oblast budget revenues, this tool to cover the financial deficit must be used with caution. We still need other means to search for financial resources.
While solving the 2010 budget problems, we should not forget about our local Duma objectives. First, we must by all means deliver on our law-making plan. This issue was discussed at the Duma Council session but so far I have not seen much activity of the committees in this area.
We are talking about democratization of our work. I hope we will take three very important decisions – to establish factions, liberalize the work of the committees and provide access to the Duma activity information. These decisions will totally change the Duma communication activity. Currently, under my instruction the Duma executive office is developing a program in this respect. We must make both political goals of the deputies and the law-making process more understandable for the population.
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